Rossett Reflections
T & L strategies by teachers, for teachers.
Issue 3 Monday 11th April, 2016
What is it all about?
As busy teachers working hard in our departments, sharing successful strategies wider than our own departments (or even within!) can often be really difficult.
Rossett Reflections seeks to distribute up-to-date (or even some old-school, tried and tested but perhaps forgotten) and easy-to-access/adapt T & L strategies as proposed by you, for other colleagues.
Issue three relates to 'self-assessment strategies' .
1) Students self-assess against learning outcomes/ success criteria
Display differentiated learning outcomes/ success criteria on the board and get student to reflect on how much progress they have made against them. Students can then set their own targets to aim for the next level of challenge/ learning outcome.
Pushed for time? Get students to simply highlight in their work where they have addressed/ met the learning outcomes.
2) Smile-o-meter
Get students to copy down the learning outcomes/ success criteria from the day's lesson and get them to simply rate their confidence against each one by drawing :) :| :(
Crucially, you must get the students to explain why they are /aren't confident with that specific area.
3) AfL Grids
Provide students with the assessment grid that the teacher would use to assess their work (works for KS3/4 + 5).
Ask students to mark their own work against the assessment criteria to generate their own summative assessment of their own work.
4) Video Analysis
Ask students to record themselves presenting/ performing/ debating (whatever the task may be!) either individually or in groups.
Set aside time in the lesson for students to then self-evaluate their own performance as demonstrated in the recordings.
Get students to write down their own ideas of what they feel they did well, and what they feel they should improve upon.
5) WAGOLL- ' what a good one looks like'
Whilst students are working on their own pieces of work, why not make your own attempt at the task? You can them demonstrate to students in real time what a good one looks like.
Students will then need to analyse your attempt and compare it to their own in order to self-assess and be able to identify positive features of their work, and areas for improvement.
6) Thumbs up, thumbs down
Can be pointless if you are simply asking for a thumbs up/ thumbs down visual response from students.
However, why not set aside several minutes to really encourage students to think about their confidence/ understanding of an issue.
First of all, ask for thumbs up/ thumbs down on a particular issue. Then, ask students to pair up with someone who is more/ less confidence for peer-support. Once students have had a conversation/ discussion, ask students again for thumbs up/ thumbs down.
To make sure that you get an accurate impression of the students' learning, question a range of higher, middle and lower students to really put their 'self-certification' to test. If you build in this routine, then hopefully honest responses will become the norm!
7) Targeted feedback following student self-assessment
If you're pushed for time for marking, or seek to offer really specific, targeted feedback, why not get the students to identify which piece you feedback on?
Before handing in their books/ pieces of work, why not get students to highlight/ underline the area which they feel strongest in (in one colour) and then highlight/ underline the area (in a separate colour) which they feel the weakest in?
This way you can get a easy-to-access impression of the students' own understanding of their progress which enables you to provide focused feedback and address any misconceptions. After all, just because they say they understand or are confident in a certain area, it doesn't actually make it true!
8) Student checklist
Simply provide students with a list of necessary knowledge/ skills/ outcomes that they are expected to demonstrate in any given unit of work.
Allow students the chance to self-evaluate against all the necessary criteria. Crucially, where they feel they are confident/ have achieved a certain criteria, they must justify/ evidence/ explain why or how this is. Similarly, if they do not feel confident with a certain criteria, they must explain what they will do to improve.